DVD Review: Hellboy – Sword of Storms

By Patrick Luce Feb 11, 2007, 23:46 GMT

A professor of folklore opens a forbidden scroll and becomes possessed by the ancient Japanese demons of Thunder and Lightning, who seek to return and dominate our world. The Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense sends Hellboy and a team of agents to investigate, but when Hellboy picks up a samurai sword, he literally disappears into a weird wonderland of Japanese legends, ghosts and monsters. Meanwhile, BPRD agents Kate Corrigan ...more

Hellboy is back and this time he is animated in Hellboy - Sword of Storms. Fans wanting to see the big red demon back on the big screen will be happy to watch this animated version of the hero and his pals, but the movie will leave you wanting more.

Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and director Guillermo Del Toro serve as creative producers for Hellboy’s first animated feature. It was directed by Phil Weinstein. Tad Stones (Buzz Lightyear of Star Command) served as supervising director and also had a hand in writing the story along with Mignola and Matt Stone. Fans of the Hellboy movie will also enjoy the fact that the main characters (Hellboy, Liz Sherman, and Abe Sapien) are voiced by their live-action big screen actors from the Hellboy movie (Ron Pearlman, Selma Blair, and Doug Jones).

The film’s plot is fairly straightforward with Hellboy and his partners from The Bureau of Paranormal Research & Defense investigating an incident involving a Japanese folklore professor, a cursed samurai sword, and a couple of ancient Japanese demons of Thunder and Lightning.

Hellboy is sent ahead with some other members of the team to investigate the incident, and is quickly sucked into a supernatural dimension that is filled with ghosts, floating heads, and monsters (such as giant spiders). He spends most of the movie wandering around the dimension trying to figure out how to get back to the real world, delivering his trademark one-liners, and squashing the bad guys.

Hellboy gets a new animated look in Sword of Storms

While Hellboy is fighting it out in another dimension, Liz and Abe are trying to discover his location and dealing with some problems of their own – namely a dragon that is hungry and very angry. Eventually, Hellboy and his pals get together for a final epic showdown between Hellboy and the two demons.

Hellboy - Sword of Storms is simply a lot of fun and will definitely please fans of the comic and the movie. From start to finish, the animated feature fits in nicely with what Mignola has done on the page and what Del Toro did on the big screen. The characters have been tweaked a bit to have more of an animated style to them (they talk in the special features about how the animated characters couldn’t look like the comic book version of the characters), but this helps give the animated film its own place in the Hellboy universe.

Kudos go to everyone involved in producing the project for getting Pearlman, Blair and Jones to provide their voices for the main characters. Pearlman IS Hellboy, and it is impossible to think of anyone else providing a voice and making it work. The actor’s voice fits the character, and helps sell every witty line that Hellboy quips before a fight.

The animated feature does have some problems, but nothing that will ruin it for Hellboy fans. My biggest complaint is that there wasn’t much of a story to the overall plot. For the most part, the film is basically Hellboy going from one big fight to the next. There is never any real question of where the film is going. I would have also liked for the animated film to have a closer art look of the Hellboy comic, but it is explained in the special features that they were not allowed to do this.

There is nothing wrong with the animated versions of Hellboy, Liz, and Abe, but I wish they could have looked closer to Mignola’s designs (he was involved in approving the look for the animated version of the characters).

Hellboy - Sword of Storms comes loaded with special features that fans are going to love. They include a detailed look at how Mignola created Hellboy, and how the comic took off; creating the new animated version of Hellboy; an inside look at the actors providing the voice work for their characters and the challenges that were presented; commentary from Mignola, Stone and Weinstein; a look at Comic Con 2006 panel discussion about the movie; and a look at the Japanese inspirations for the film.

Sword of Storms has all the action needed to fit a Hellboy story

Hellboy - Sword of Storms is a fun ride from start to finish and is worth taking the time to watch if you are already a fan or if you like animated superhero features (such as Justice League or Batman). I have been a fan of Hellboy since I discovered the Dark Horse comic, and I loved the Hellboy movie. For fans like me, Sword of Storms is a nice appetizer while we wait for Hellboy to return to the big screen.

Hellboy: Sword of Storms is now available at Amazon. It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a March 5th release. Visit the DVD database for more information.